1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reversing apparatus used for reversing sheets, such as banknotes, securities or cards, from a front face to a rear face, and vice versa.
2. Related Background Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-30706 discloses a conventional technology in the above-mentioned field. The reversing apparatus described in this application comprises a common conveyance path into which a sheet after differentiation between the front and rear faces thereof is conveyed; a reversing pool portion into which the sheet is fed after having been conveyed through the common conveyance path; a stopper disposed so as to open and close at an end point of the reversing pool portion; and a reversing conveyance path extending from a junction between the common conveyance path and the reversing pool portion. The reversing pool portion is used as part of a non-reversing conveyance path during conveyance of a sheet not to be reversed.
However, the reversing pool portion in the conventional reversing apparatus described above includes a conveyance path provided with one entrance and two exits. Therefore, a sheet immediately after discharged from the reversing pool portion is delivered into either of two ways, i.e. the conveyance path for passage of a sheet in a reversed state and the conveyance path for passage of a sheet in a non-reversed state. It is thus necessary to merge the conveyance path for the reversed sheet with the conveyance path for the non-reversed sheet and then feed the sheet into the next processing step. For this reason, the non-reversed sheet conveyance path extending from the reversing pool portion needs to be extended up to the merging part. This results in a delay in timing of feeding the non-reversed sheet discharged from the reversing pool portion, into the next processing step, thus posing a problem that it could hinder improvement in reversing process performance. In such a path configuration or arrangement, the provision of the openable/closable stopper at the end point of the reversing pool portion is also a factor contributing to hindrance to increase of sheet reversing process speed.
The present invention has been accomplished in order to solve the above problem and, particularly, an object of the present invention is to provide sheet-reversing apparatus with improved reversing process performance.